Copy Protected Music Ghettos Are Holding Back The Industry

from the doesn't-help-anyone dept

Mon, Oct 23rd 2006 12:21pm — Mike Masnick

It's nice to see a mainstream publication, like the Washington Post, start to recognize that the multiple incompatible forms of copy protection and DRM are creating "music ghettos" where songs bought from one service can't play on certain devices and songs bought on other services can't play on other devices -- creating a huge hassle for anyone who actually wants to buy the music they like and listen to it whatever music device they like. As Tim Lee points out, one of the big culprits here (unfortunately, not mentioned in the Washington Post article) is the DMCA law and its anti-circumvention rule. Without that, someone could come along and create utilities to make songs from any of these services compatible with any device. However, thanks to the anti-circumvention rule, that's illegal. The end result is that the entire industry is completely held back by the law that the industry itself pushed so hard for and refuses to reform. It's yet another example where the recording industry is shooting itself in the foot by holding back its own market through short-sighted policies.

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20 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2006 @ 12:43pm

Compatability? What?!

Screw the user. Give _us_ and only us all your $.
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Justin, 23 Oct 2006 @ 12:48pm

Don't download
The music industry is screwing itself and I love it.

About 2 years ago when I realized Apple locked iTunes songs for only 5 computers, I decided to never downlaod music (legally) again. When you can order a whole CD, case and all, used on Amazon.com for $3, why would you ever want to download a CD for $9 at a lousy sounding bitrate.
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mixlplix, 23 Oct 2006 @ 12:52pm

I agree. Only an idiot would buy anything with DRM. I hope all the record companies go down. We dont need them.
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ScaredOfTheMan, 23 Oct 2006 @ 12:58pm

I think it so funny. If only to be a fly on the wall during a Music Exec meeting.

They are stuck in a catch 22. DRM free music will solve their problem, but they won't allow DRM free music.

How do bottled water company's compete with Free water, that comes out of everyone's tap. AND They make hundreds of millions doing it. Why can't the labels do that?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:00pm

what about circumvention techniques that the company includes in their software? i don't know if apple has changed this but from what i understand you can just use itunes to burn your music to cd and then rip the files from that cd... the cd doesn't have drm on it, so the itunes program itself would be bypassing the protection scheme. it's time consuming, yes, but it's drm free in the end...
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Pixel Rider, 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:12pm

Re:
The bottled water analogy is one of the best I have heard. It's all about convenience. Sure you can get it free, but sometimes its easier to just pay someone to give you what you want.
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Jekko, 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:14pm

Coppy Right
Anonymous; it is not the way it suppose to be!
The reason is, you are junk.
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Mike C., 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:23pm

And the users cried...
(This is someone else's idea and I do not know who said it first)

And the users cried with a laugh and a taunt,
That's just what we asked for,
But not what we want!
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Termi0n, 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:25pm

This is great news if you ask me.
Keep fighting the "good" fight RIAA! Here's hoping they all go under.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:26pm

huh?
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freakengine, 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:33pm

No More ITunes for Me
Guess what Apple. I'm done. I'm tired of buying music on Itunes, only to turn around and burn it so I can rip it back into my computer in the format of my choosing. I always thought success in retail was achieved when you sold people things they wanted, and not when you shoved your overpriced crap down people's throats.

Our society needs to remeber how to say no. No to DRM. No to odd formats. No to overpriced lo-fi tracks. No to lack of liner notes and art. It seems that people nowadays, in their quest to obtain obtain obtain have forgotten that if you aren't getting what you want you don't have to buy!
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chris (profile), 23 Oct 2006 @ 1:38pm

Re: scaredoftheman
How do bottled water company's compete with Free water, that comes out of everyone's tap. AND They make hundreds of millions doing it. Why can't the labels do that?
that's freakin' awesome. the same can be said for libraries and broadcast television... why are bookstores doing brisk business when you can get books free at the library... why do we buy seasons of TV shows on DVD when they are always run as repeats in syndication?
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Mr.Obvious, 23 Oct 2006 @ 2:08pm

I would be willing to bet that 90% of the music on peoples iPods are not DMR protected music bought from iTunes and would say the same for any MP3 player that supports plain old MP3's.I know that about 99% of mine are not DRM protected and the ones that are were either given to me free through a promotion or a iTunes gift card.And I will not buy DRM protected music with my own money now or ever.Until they come out with the simple format that is not protected and I can use it how I see fit then I will still rip from my own CD's or friends CD's or download illegally.That is why the music industry is just barely holding their nose above the water.Because most people feel the same as me.I will pay a fair price for a fair product I can use when and how I want.Until that's offered im a criminal under todays laws.Laws which were bought and paid for by RIAA.Our Government our the biggest crooks in the world if you ask me.I still hold out hope that one day when my generation or the next makes it to the top seat of Government they will do away with these laws.Atleast I hope anyway.
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Sam, 23 Oct 2006 @ 2:10pm

Uh...
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/10/23/1826234&from=rss

DVD Jon is now apparently going to fight that law...
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Murph, 23 Oct 2006 @ 2:33pm

I like it hard!
Give me hard copy or give me an E.M.P.! I still do and will always aquire a hard copy of anything I listen to before ever moving it to my iTunes or other media player. How I aquire those hard copies is for me to worry about. But the idea of only having an eletrronic copy that is stuck in one format is just stupid. Thats one of the highlights of owning a computer. So that a person can manipulate their own media. I say to hell with the downloads, buy it from a store or amazon or copy it from friend but own it for you! Then do with it what you wish.
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CGLC, 23 Oct 2006 @ 3:14pm

I've seen the future of online music
Most of the music industry is completely clueless about the potential for the market of unrestricted product. They have to rethink the way it works. I'm a great fan of Magnatunes which has downloads of WAV and lossless format files (also in mp3, but I have no idea why anyone even bothers with that format except for iPod type devices that you listen to with bud earplugs) without DRM. An unheard of 50% of the purchase price (you get to decide how much to pay) goes directly to the musician. I download in WAV format (takes awhile) and then burn a cd, meaning that I have a hard copy to archive and then rip from that into whatever format I want(usually WMAL). They even give you a pdf cover art file. This is an obvious model for the music industry, if they'd just wake up to the potential. No cd production - just provide the music and allow the end user to choose what to do with it.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Oct 2006 @ 3:16pm

Re: I like it hard!
Be careful of any cd you buy at a store and stick in your computer, especially if it's a sony label.
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mbrownie, 23 Oct 2006 @ 5:19pm

DRM and Device Compatability
It is laws such as these that continue to baffle me. Next there will be food that can only be cooked on a certain name brand microwave due to chemicals injected into the food. Absurd yes, impossible no. Where will it end? I will contnue to buy my music from whomever I choose and play it on whatever I like, ofcourse I still only play 8 tracks and vinyl!!!!!!!! Analog lives!,,,digital kills! ( I have learnered to convert all forms to digital, just don't like to let it out, god help me if the entertainment industry finds out I bootlegged an 8 track!)
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2006 @ 5:14am

Re:
I guess I don't care to an extent, I am just going to download CDs from MIRC and other sources as always and to hell with RIAA and all the rest of the recording industry..

DVD-and-Music CD's
AnyDVD : Bypasses protections on DVD's

(Does not load any info into the OS and outright bypasses any copy protection I have come across so far... I only hope the rest of the world uses applications like this because I think that the only way to fix the issue is to steal them blind...
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Not Neutral, 24 Oct 2006 @ 11:01am

Let's extend the concept
Let's extend the idea to the whole internet ... the parallel to the net neutrality issue is not obscure. Instead of music islands, there could/would be 'application islands' where the "inter" part of the net will be constrained to the point of pointlessness.
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